Little boys come to visit

Nice weekend, with boy cousins and their parents visiting; Charlie, Angie, and Annie running in the Giant's Valley 5K in LeSueur; and a Skype session at lunchtime with Hannah and her mommy. Hannah got to talk to everyone except Uncle Tanner, who wasn't quite finished golfing. Later in the day, after naps, the kiddies enjoyed a dip in the baby pool at the park, then came home for a swim in the tub to remove chlorine and other interesting liquids from their sweet skin. Here are some photos with a few of the events of the day.

Grandpappy and a sleepy, just-waking-up Owen

It was a literary kind of day, with lots of reading in the sun room. 

Here, Owen points out a word he wants his mommy to repeat.

Ethan has an idea brewing.

Miles is skeptical about the talents of the Little Blue Truck.

Miles is showing some wear and tear
after his fourth helping of calico beans.

 Ethan takes part in a serious after-dinner conversation.

As always, the little ones kept the adults busy and entertained. Thanks, boys!

Grams

Bertha Amelia Johnson Potts, better known as Grams, would be 119 if she were alive today. She lived to age 89-1/2, which I mention only because on one of her birthdays in her mid-80's, Grams blew out her birthday candles and wished aloud to live to age 90. She almost made it. Annie, you never got to meet her, but you would have loved her, and the feeling would've been mutual!

Here is Grams as a young woman in 1917, standing behind her father, Nils, who is holding Great-Grandpa Larry.

And here she is at Christmastime in 1979, holding a wary Elisabeth and a squirmy Charlie!

Grams was a sweet and gentle soul with a distinctive and girlish giggle. She lived with Larry/Dad's family in Buffalo beginning in 1947, so she was a part of their lives even when Larry/Dad and Don were babies. She was a great solitaire player, loved to eat hot dogs for lunch, did crossword puzzles, and was an avid reader. Turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy were her dinner of choice when she went to restaurants. As a young woman, Grams went to a commercial college in Chicago to learn typing and bookkeeping and worked in a shop with her friend Viola for a short time. She was married to Walter Potts in 1912. When she was in her 60's and 70's, she lived with older ladies as a live-in caregiver. When I got to know her, she was a faithful soap opera watcher, and was eager to let me know that her favorite show had added some "Hawaiians" as characters. Enough said about that! :o )
Linda, you have lots of memories of Grams and I know the two of you had a special relationship. Nice to think about Bertha Amelia Potts today.

A visit from two munchkins

Today feels like Saturday, mostly because we had an afternoon visit from Charlie, Angie, Ethan, and Owen. They made the trek to San Pedro to have dinner on campus with their friend Aaron and some of the other Gustie basketball camp coaches they know, and to let the boys try caf food.

Here are Ethan and Owen being cute out in 

the sunroom early in the afternoon.

 

They like to cook together... 

 

...and read together.

 

Ethan and Owen are zoo experts after their trip with Grandma Dar, Grandpa Dean, and Uncle Josh to the zoo at Como Park, so we took them on a short trip to Sibley Park to see some animals and to practice their animal identification skills. 

Ethan and Angie enjoy the view.

 The slides at Sibley Park are fun, too.

Ethan and Grandpappy check out some leaves, 

and Ethan questions the variety.

 

Daddy and Owen walk the bridge.

 

A familiar animal family poses for a picture.

Say MOOOOOOO!

Two more, this time in black and white...

Thanks for coming to play!

Saturday travelogue

(How many of you fell asleep reading my tee-shirt-sorting entry? Come on, raise your hands. You won't hurt my feelings!)

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Today

The nearly 5 hour round-trip drive to SV to visit GGCReps is often boring and certainly lonely most times. Today, Larry/Dad/Paco, Annie, and Miles came along,  making it an enjoyable change of pace. GGpa Charlie was thrilled and delighted to see Miles (Annie and Larry/Dad, too). Here are some highlights from the visit:

We took GGpa Charlie to the A&W for lunch. It's a bit difficult for GGpa Charlie to navigate in and out of the car and into a wheelchair, so we ate in and around the vehicle under the carport canopy rather than sitting at the outdoor tables in the hot sun. Miles and I enjoyed a picnic in the back of our car, sharing French fries and ketchup. Miles chowed down his hot dog and milk, and chatted up a storm. A group of motorcycle riders were lunching a short distance from us, and Miles had his eyes and ears glued to them.

About the A&W:  "Grandma Jill, you worked here a long time ago?"

A ride around town to check out what's happenin' took us to the SV Bakery, as always, to pick up some crescent doughnuts. Despite an early call-in to reserve a couple dozen, all but 20 had been sold. Today's flavor: banana. Not bad.

Miles noticed the cookies right away, and while the plain sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies were appealing, he made a different choice.

 "I want the one with the candy."

Next it was time for a trek to Reps Field. When Max was visiting Mark and Kathy a couple of weeks ago, he posed in front of the Reps Field sign--so cute! Seems like a good idea to have all the great-grandchildren take their turn, and Miles volunteered this time. GGpa Charlie enjoyed the photo shoot, and Miles got to practice his ref signals.

"Touchdown!

"Penalty declined!"

"Time for a hug!"

We were warm and tired, so we made our way back to the Senior Care Center to cool off, chat, and to visit Evergreens, the newest area of the Care Center where GGpa Charlie has put a deposit on a two-bedroom apartment to move into when he's ready. Miles asked him all day if he is getting stronger, and GGpa Charlie appreciated his concern.

Miles, taking GGPa Charlie for a ride.

We said good-bye to Great-Grandpa Charlie and took a trip to his house to check on things, and then headed back to O-Town to see how Tanner/Daddy was doing after a morning of golf in Waseca. While there, Annie gave Dad/Larry/Paco a bottle of wine she purchased for him on a work trip to Alexandria, which included a side trip to Carlos Creek Winery. That's one heckuva Minnesota wine there, that's for sure, you betcha. If you can't read the label, it's Minnesota Nice Hotdish Red. And Dad/Larry/Paco hasn't had a drop of it yet, despite the look on his face!

Annie, thanks also for the garden greens you sent along. I'll be cookin' some of them up tomorrow!

Black in order

In an attempt to begin the process of organizing, cleaning, throwing out, and giving away debris that has crept into drawers and closets while my back was turned, I armed myself with a gigantic plastic garbage bag and made a puny start this afternoon.  Four bathroom drawers, five kitchen desk drawers, and eight dresser drawers are better off for my time and attention.

The most daunting aspect of my meager effort was reducing from three to two the number of dresser drawers holding my collection of black knit mostly v-neck tee shirts. I own some colorful tee-shirts, but only a small pile of them, enough to stack neatly on one side of a small drawer. I decided to approach the black tee-shirt task by categorizing them. First I sorted them from oldest to newest, then in five-year increments--those purchased between 1990 and 1995, from 1996-2000, etc.--the grayer blacks belonged to the first five years, as it turns out, and these are also rather thin and frail. Well-loved, though, which is why they made the cut. While the shading differences were interesting to observe, this method turned out to be unsatisfactory because it doesn't consider sleeve style, over-all fit, and other important criteria. 

Next I tried neck style, which left me with a huge pile of v-necks and a short pile of round-necks. Clearly I have a preference for v-necks. Ultimately it came down to neck style, followed by sleeve length (long, 3/4, short, and -less). As I sorted, I tried on some less endearing shirts, casting a few into the discard pile, but finding something appealing enough about others to rescue most until the next sorting occurs.

I am half-tempted to make labels to put on the drawers to indicate the characteristics of each now neatly folded pile of black tees so that I can avoid frantically pawing through stack after stack looking for the one black, sleeveless shirt I own (since sometime in the 90's). In theory, sorting by sleeve length should help me avoid the frantic part, but in the dim light of morning even the best organizational plan for like-colored tee-shirts can go awry. 

Fortunately, my underwear drawer was less complex to arrange. Most of my underwear is/are white and the same style. Easy to grab a pair in the morning and know they'll go under anything. No smart comments, please. 
  

Addendum: Should anyone think the organizing process that was begun today will continue at a fever pitch, you don't know me very well. This could be IT for days. Weeks. Months. I make no promises.

PS: Happy Birthday week shout-outs to Regis, Shirley, Mary, and Pat. 

PPS: Mike & Margot created a Top Ten Caption List for the outhouse photo in the previous blog entry. Here we go....

10. Are these the apartments CReps is thinking about moving into? I think he can afford something better than this.

9.  An example of the pots passing the Potts.

8. The St. Peter 4th of July parade stinks. LITERALLY!

7. That's a big 10-4 Rubber Duck, we got us a ka-ka-convoy!

6.  An exclusive look at new luxury housing units on their way to Northern Anoka County.

5. You know, put a chimney on those and you have yourself an outdoor wood boiler!

4. POTTS, Porta-POTTies, POTholes... It can't be just a coincidence. Weird!

3. Another satisfied customer thanks to Incontinental Trucking Co.

2.  Uhh, I don't think that's RAIN on the windshield, honey.

And the No. 1 caption for the porta-potty photo:
1. I have a sudden, uncontrollable urge for urine cakes.

This one is for Evan

Here's how it looks in St. Peter the day after the 4th of July parade--this guy had just picked up a load of Porta-Potty look-alikes from around town and was speeding along MN Avenue (trying to stay ahead of the odor, no doubt). I started to write that the driver was "hauling _ _ _" but it seemed crude...

It's been...

...one of those days, only it just seems like two. I've been sick today with "flu-like symptoms" of a slamming headache, body aches, fever and chills. It actually started yesterday with what I thought was food poisoning from (perhaps) peanut butter, so I spent a good deal of Friday doing very little. During the night the achy stuff kicked in, and so it's been a Tylenol, water, sleep, repeat kind of day.

A couple of hours ago, Dad/Larry/Paco went out to the garage to bring in bottled agua and pop. After about five minutes he opened the door into the house and called to me to help him. I figured he was carrying too much and couldn't get in, or else he'd gone to the mailbox and found out we were Grand Prize Winners, and was overcome by joy. Unfortunately, neither was the case. He'd somehow stepped wrong and ended up pulling a thigh muscle (we think) and ended up on the garage floor, unable to use his leg to pull himself up. After sitting a few minutes and with the use of Grandpa Larry's old cane and my shoulder, he got up and was able to get into the house. If you recall, he injured his back bending over to pick up some sticks several weeks ago. I guess this is a lesson for him. No more helping around the house. Oh lord, what did I just say??  He's watching a Mel Gibson movie to aid in recovery. I can hear shooting and sirens, so I imagine it's doing the job.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!